


Old Habits

by notjustmom



Series: Pepperony [4]
Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2020-01-14 12:38:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18476401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notjustmom/pseuds/notjustmom
Summary: I was thinking about how Tony and Pepper ended up back together at the beginning of Infinity War, and honestly, I've been having a hard time writing them because they are so canon. They were canon in the first Iron Man movie, and always will be. But this is my take on how they might have made up, post Civil War.





	1. Chapter 1

Three and a half weeks had passed since the events in Siberia. The bruises were slowly fading, his ribs were beginning to knit again, but he couldn’t sleep. 

He had tried decaf tea instead coffee, yoga, various dvds of the sounds of different rainforests of the world, white noise, he cut out sugar from his diet, started working out, carefully, three times a day, and then running at night. Finally he gave into Rhodey’s suggestion that he try a sleeping pill, and he slept, but the nightmares were even worse than before, and he gave up trying.

He thought about calling Pepper to ask her for advice, but she had made it very clear that a clean break would be best for both of them. She lived in Europe most of the year now, of course he knew where she lived, just to be sure she was okay, and Rhodey was still in touch with her, (he knew this even though he wasn’t meant to) he would let him know if she needed his help with anything. Of course she wouldn’t, she was perfectly capable of functioning without him, he had always known that, and he realized (finally) that he had probably loved her more than she needed (same thing as love? He wasn’t sure) him. He started wondering why she had stayed so long. Maybe he was just a bad habit for her, and she had left because she needed to quit him cold turkey.

“Nice.” He muttered to himself as he went back to reworking the newest armor, Mark fifty-seven- no eight. His suits would always need him. They didn’t exist unless he made them. He was needed. There, there was a reason for him to exist. “Really, Stark? Damn.”

“Package, Boss.” FRIDAY’s voice interrupted his pity party and he went upstairs for the first time in days.

“Tony -”

“Stark. S-T-A-R-K. Yep. That’s me. Just leave it on the table there. I don’t like when people -”

“Right, I remember, you don’t like being handed things.” The delivery man shook his head, but the man was a billionaire and an Avenger, so, he could be as eccentric as he wanted to be. “Sorry about Ms. Potts.” He offered, and winced as he caught the look in Tony’s eyes. “Sorry.”

“Doesn’t matter, finally made Page Six, huh?”

“Cover of People couple last week.”

“Great.” Tony had FRIDAY run a scan of the package, and after it had been found to be safe, he picked it up and disappeared downstairs again.

He settled back into his chair and opened the box to find a collection of Ingmar Bergman films. He looked for any indication of the sender, but the only information he could find was from a mailing company, no sign of a note, and then he remembered a couple years back when Pepper had fallen in love with Bergman, and she tried to get him interested, but he always fell asleep five minutes in. Somehow, she knew. It was either Rhodey or Happy.

Probably Rhodey. Traitor.

But, she had remembered. Why had she bothered? Hell. It had been three days since he had tried to sleep last, might as well give it a shot. He picked up the box, then walked to the door and whispered, “night, all.” He knew it was silly to say goodnight to the armor and his bots, but it always made him feel less alone when he pretended that they could actually care if he left the room.

“Night, Boss.”

FRIDAY waited until she knew Tony was upstairs before she put in a call to London.


	2. Chapter 2

"Ms. Potts."

"FRIDAY. Did the movies get there?"

"Yes, he should be asleep in precisely 3.25 minutes."

"Good. How - never mind. Thank you for letting me know." She got up from her desk and walked to the window, and breathed out a sigh of relief as she watched the London traffic stream by below.

"Ms. Potts. He -"

"FRIDAY."

"Sorry, it's just he made my software a bit more empathetic last week, so I know. I know -"

"I can't. One day, he's not going to find a way out, FRI, and I can't -"

"You still have feelings, yes?"

"Of course I do. Sometimes feelings aren't enough. I want him to be safe and happy, and he isn't ready to be that, not for himself, certainly not for me. He hasn't -"

"No, he rarely leaves the workshop, Ms. Potts."

"Will you, just please remind him to eat?"

"I always do."

 

Pepper ended the call and looked up as the blue skies turned grey, and yes, even though she knew better, she knew all she would have to do was call him and he would drop whatever it was he was doing and he would be at the window in minutes, in his latest armor, and all would be perfect, for five minutes, before the arguments would start. He would make promises that she knew he was incapable of keeping, and she would get angry for believing him. He was who he was, and she loved him, would always love him exactly because he was the man he was, but sometimes, love wasn't enough. It should be, but sometimes life made things impossible.

She tried to figure out the exact moment she had fallen in love with him.

She had known when she watched him limp off the cargo plane at the airport, after he finally returned from Afghanistan. She had believed it was just because she had missed him, missed the idea that she was necessary to someone. Yes, she no longer was on call essentially 24/7, she could go out on dates, actually get through the stack of long unread novels by her bed, without the fear of a call from Tony asking her where he had left his keys, or his phone, or needing help with - no, she knew it was real when he stood in front of her, and all she had wanted to do was wrap her arms around him and hold him, but she knew him too well, and knew from the look in his eyes that if she had touched him at that moment, he would have resented it, seen her reaction as a sign of weakness on his side, and he would never have forgiven it, or her, so it was business as usual. 

Until it was almost too late.

And she finally gave in. No. It wasn't just her. He had finally let her in. Yes, it took him nearly dying. She still couldn't believe she hadn't seen it, she should have known, should have understood even before he had discovered the element that saved him, all of the signs were there, but she had been afraid to see it, hadn't wanted to see that he was dying in front of her. But on that roof, as the city was exploding below them, he, she, they, finally became them, and she had wished that moment could have lasted forever.

Of course it couldn't.

She had his company to reboot, essentially she had rebuilt it from scratch, while he had been pulled into the Avengers, and though at first he had resented playing second fiddle to Cap, she knew how important that family was to him. Damn it. She knew how much he would be hurting right now, she couldn't imagine how betrayed he must feel. Again. 

A fresh wave of fierce, protective anger radiated through her, how they could have done that to him. After everything -

"Pot meet kettle, Pep? A little?" She muttered to herself and sighed as the skies turned dark and opened up, and she realized, more than anything, she wanted to be home. Then she understood for the first time that even now, separated by an ocean, her home was Tony.

"...Ms. Potts? Pepper? Your three o'clock is here."

"Thank you, Happy. Be there in a minute."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I was going to make this longer... but what can I say I'm a softie.

"Tones."

"Nope."

"It wasn't me."

"Happy's in London with Pepper, and there's no one else here, so it has to be you."

"Boss?"

"Not right now, FRIDAY."

"Boss."

"I said, 'Not right now -' He froze as he looked up to see Pepper standing in the doorway to the kitchen. "Pep. What are you doing here?"

Rhodey rolled his eyes, then pushed away from the table, and grabbed his coffee, then kissed the offered cheek as he walked past her and whispered, "it's about time, Ms. Potts," before he slowly made his way to his part of the compound.

"Thank you for the movies. Worked like a charm. Hope you had a good flight. Coffee?"

"Tony."

"Just checking up on me?" He asked quietly. "You didn't have to fly all the way - here, just to see how I was. There are things called phones. Heard of Skype? Facetime? I'm fine."

"I know."

"You don't have your luggage with you, so I'm assuming -"

"Since when did you start assuming anything about me?" Pepper asked quietly.

"Since, oh, I don't know, you made it abundantly clear that you didn't want anything to do with me. 'Clean break,' ring any bells?"

"I'm sorry."

"No." He got up from the table and moved into the kitchen to make a fresh pot of coffee.

"Tony."

"You were always here, Pepper. Everyone else - even Rhodey, he had given up on me, thought I'd lost my mind, when I got back from Afghanistan but you stayed, you let me work it out, and then - when I - damn."

"Do you know when I fell in love with you?" 

"What?"

"Do you know the moment I fell in love with you? No, it wasn't that, it was the moment I knew I loved you. Do you know when it was?"

"Right before I left for Afghanistan," he mumbled at the wall in front of him. "That morning, when you were trying to kick me out, it was your birthday. There was a split second right before you handed me my espresso, and your eyes changed, and then you smiled at me in a way I hadn't seen before. If I had stayed home that day, if the last eight years hadn't happened the way they did -"

"Tony."

"If I stop -"

"Don't." She dropped her coat and walked behind him, then reached out and touched his back. "When you came home, and you got off that plane and walked towards me, all I wanted to do was wrap my arms around you, and not let you go. I wanted to keep you safe, Tony, so no one could ever hurt you again. But I knew - I knew I couldn't do that. I left you because I didn't understand, I thought, you loved me because you needed me, because I was necessary to you, just part of the machine - part of what makes you go."

She felt him flinch under her fingers and he shook his head.

"I know I was wrong, and I know how much - no, actually I don't. I can't imagine what it has been like, for you, the least few months, and I should have been here. I should have been here not because you needed someone, but because I love you."

"Pep." She watched his shoulders begin to quake as he leaned over the sink, and she didn't hesitate to wrap her arms around his waist as she pressed her forehead between his shoulder blades and tightened her grip.

"I love you because you never give up, so many times you could have, but you won't, until you have tried every last thing you can do to make things right; I love how you love me, even when you buy me ridiculous presents, and take three hours to make me an omelet; I love the way you look at me, like I'm the most precious thing in the world -."

Tony turned in her arms and she gently kissed the yellowing remnants of the bruises that crisscrossed his cheekbones. "You are, Pep, the most precious. You are priceless, damn, that sounds wrong. I always -" He shook his head and sniffed. "I always get the words wrong, I don't know, I didn't know the words that would make you want to stay with me, so I said nothing, I just let you walk out, and I didn't say a word. I still don't know. All I know is that I breathe easier because I know you exist. You aren't the air I breathe, you make the air I breathe sweeter. Just tell me what I need to do to make you stay and I'll do it."

"Just hold me, Mr. Stark, can you do that?"

Tony snorted and nodded, then sighed as she leaned into his chest and closed her eyes. "Yes, Ms. Potts, I think I can manage that." He slowly brought his good arm around her, and held her as tightly as he could then pressed a kiss into her hair. "I love you, too, more than I can ever tell you, Pep."

 

"Ms. Potts."

"Yes, FRIDAY?" Pepper asked quietly as she watched Tony sleep next to her.

"You won't leave him again."

"No, I won't." She sighed as Tony rolled over and pulled her into his arms. "Never again."


End file.
